Abstract
THE Compte rendu of the Geological Congress held in Belgium in 1922 has just been received at the British Museum (Natural History). From it I learn that there were made in the rules of organisation, previously formulated in London, certain changes that call for comment. An attempt, possibly unintentional, seems to have been made to restrict the invitations and the list of those competent to serve on the council to purely professional geologists representing official surveys. But this was exposed and defeated by the restoration of at least the universities and geological societies to the list. Museums, however, were quite definitely in so many words eliminated from official representation. I beg to raise, and I hope to lead, an energetic protest against this slur on establishments that are a powerful means of promoting geology. Setting aside the Geological and Mineralogical Departments of the British Museum, which in the past have numbered men of rare and world-wide distinction among their officers, I may instance the American Museum of Natural History, the president of which is this year the recipient of the highest honour that the Geological Society of London can bestow, and the geologists and palæontologists of which have of late thrown light not merely on the past history of the Americas but of the Mongolian Desert.
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BATHER, F. The Geological Congress and Museums. Nature 117, 199 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/117199b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/117199b0
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